“That one can convince one’s opponents with printed reasons, I have not believed since the year 1764. It is not for that purpose that I have taken up my pen, but rather merely to annoy them, and to give strength and courage to those on our side, and to make it known to the others that they have not convinced us.”
G.C. Lichtenberg (1742 – 1799), courtesy of 'Deogolwulf'

Sunday, 27 May 2018

The Sunday Rumble: 27.5.18

Damn that Peter Hitchens! He's made me change my mind - again! Like almost everyone with even a passing interest in Parliamentary affairs, I have over recent years developed, nay, cultivated, a deep and abiding detestation of the Speaker, that ghastly, little, jumped-up dwarf, John Bercow. To be honest, I have begun to rather enjoy my dislike of the wretched man which is regularly re-enforced at Prime Minister's Question Time each Wednesday morning. Apart from anything else, he makes me feel better about myself! But then along comes Hitchens with a well thought-out argument in Bercow's favour which has made me think - and, oh, I do hate thinking, simply regurgitating one's prejudices is so much easier!

Bodies can be left there for months or years to show the different stages in decomposition.

The corpses could be buried, hung or decayed in water to understand and analyse how they break down in different conditions.

I am thinking of volunteering my old carcass because I really do hate funerals and don't wish to put my loved ones - er, that's you, SoD! - through yet another boring-snoring ceremony. However, given my slight Shakespearean background, I shall insist that they dunk my body in a vat of wine like Lord Clarence in Richard III.

God bless Hollywood: I don't care if they're all busy doing naughty things to each other just so long as they continue producing superb films that stay lodged in my memory. For example, Cabaret, directed by Bob Fosse and starring and starring Liza Minnelli, Michael York, and Joel Grey. Last night it featured on one of those obscure TV channels that show old films. Alas, it was interrupted by an overlong commercial break so I switched off. Happily, I have just discovered that with the help of my trusty 'do-flicker-thingie' I recorded the film on BBC - no ad breaks! - yonks ago, so one day next week I will sit and re-watch the whole thing. Last night I only saw the opening sequences in the grotty Berlin night club. Everything about it was perfection, the performances, the direction, the choreography, the design, the camera angles - all simply superb. Bob Fosse was, quite simply, a theatrical and film genius.

"Truth will out", slowly but inexorably: The truth of that Shakespearean insight is demonstrated yet again, this time by 'the cousins over there' who are gradually squeezing out the truth behind all this so-called 'Russia-gate' affair. Mark Steyn puts it best:

As I think most persons paying attention now realize, the investigation into foreign interference with the 2016 election was created as a cover for domestic interference with the 2016 election. ... Brennan and Clapper and Comey and McCabe. They took tools designed to combat America's foreign enemies and used them against their own citizens and their political opposition. [My emphasis] It was an intentional subversion of the electoral process conducted at the highest level by agencies with almost unlimited power. And, if they get away with it, they will do it again, and again and again. That's what Brennan's telling us on Twitter, and Clapper on "The View".

Yep! I am no expert but that's more or less what I have been thinking in recent weeks.

Woman fails infantry tests: File this under 'Why am I not surprised?' According to The Mail, a woman recruit failed her recruit training in the first fortnight.

Women have fought bravely and well and intelligently in all sorts of dangerous combat arenas but front-line infantry is not one of them. There, they are likely to become a burden to their comrades. One of the absolute essentials for infantrymen is the ability to place an enormous weight of equipment on your back and then carry it across country for hour after hour after hour. The PC prats in the MoD who sanctioned this ludicrous nonsense should be fired, and the total plonker who first gave permission for it, David Cameron, should be ordered to attend six months infantry training. I wonder how long he would last?!

I know you're all waiting with bated breath: So, just to let you relax, the Monaco Grand Prix has just finished and (Sir) Lewis finished third. Unfortunately that damned Hun was second and - shlock-horror - some outback Australian was first! Actually, like all Monaco Grand Prix it was a totally boring snore-fest! The next race is in Canada where, hopefully, we can see some drivers trying to overtake!

This made me chuckle:A delightful little article in The Telegraph by the frightfully posh-sounding Ms. Sophia Money-Coutts whose family name is equally fascinating. Coutts Bank is one of the oldest in the world and I can only assume - hope? - someone with the surname 'Money' married into the family, truly a marriage made at the Deposit Counter! Anyway, the lady, who sounds very amusing, tells the story of her day working for CNN at the wedding - oh come on, you know which wedding! She points up deliciously the differences between British humour and American humour. Great gal!

An Agatha Christie I haven't seen six times before! The 'Memsahib' has made it clear that nothing else will be viewed on the 'telly' tonight, so there's an end to it!

re Bercow, I prefer the view of Quentin Letts, the Mail's parliamentary sketch writer who has observed the speaker every day for years. He finds him biased as well as bumptious and self important. The accusations of bullying and obnoxious behaviour from people like the estimable Sir Robert Rogers who retired early, and Black Rod and others can't be ignored. I don't rate a defence from Ken Clarke, either, whose mask of faux geniality has slipped since the referendum. He has a long association with Bercow, who incidentally did not apologise for calling Andrea Leadsome a stupid woman but claimed he said that a motion was stupid - rather different. Sir Lindsay Hoyle the Deputy Speaker demonstrates every time he officiates how much better he would be in the post.

Well David far as your last item (for now 1418 GMT?) coming out "slowly"?

For those amongst us (your cousins) who've run afoul of certain sections of the Patriot Act - pure in heart though "he" surely was - the release of changes to EO 12333 three days before Trump was administered the oath of office for the Presidency elicited furious communications between deep dark Arkansas and our Congressional delegations in Washington DC:

"We who enjoyed previous experience" with this subject matter were keenly aware that, with the widening of the threshold for even more government officials to be given access; The deluge would surely flood us all.

I'd only add to Mr. Steyn's "illuminations" re the 73 year old Stephan Halper that, following Bill Clinton's graduating Georgetown Uni in 1968 he [Bill] received a Fulbright Scholarship to Oxford in England where, the now 73 years old Bill Clinton was a classmate to Stephan Halper.

David, Speakers come and go in history. Bercow manages to keep the mad mob in line like his predacessors did. It is just a show for the elected politicians and far from the mundane world where they apparantly represent their constituents.

This morning AussieD, we are not worrying about someone being banged up to protect a load of muslim rapists. No - the lead item on breakfast TV is the naughty people in Northern Ireland being against abortion on demand.

BoE if that sort of treatment is meted out by the so called "authorities" to the ordinary Briton it may be that Kipling's "The wrath of the awakened Saxon" turns out to be a prophesy rather than just verse.

Ordinary people with a history of resisting totalitarian regimes can only be pushed so far.